30 Minutes or Less

Probably our favorite simple chicken recipe.

Fill your plate with corn on the cob, sweet-potato chips, and dill pickles. For dessert, have watermelon wedges and sugar cookies.

Green beans go upscale in this fresh take on a favorite Thanksgiving dish.

Active time: 10 min Start to finish: 10 min

A terrific way to finish off the cranberry relish. Make full use of your oven — and your time — by roasting small red-skinned potatoes alongside the fish, then tossing the potatoes with butter and parsley to have as a side dish. Boil slim green beans or haricots verts to complement the main course. End the meal with slices of marble pound cake ("toasted" briefly in the oven) topped with chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

Nuoc Tuong Pha This vegetarian dipping sauce can be made with any soy sauce, including the Japanese-style Kikkoman, although the Vietnamese prefer the lighter-bodied Chinese-style products marketed under the brands Kim Lan, Bo De, and Pearl River Bridge. Like dipping sauces made with fish sauce, you can embellish this with different aromatics such as ginger and cilantro.

The Ginger Fried Rice with Shiitake Mushrooms is a perfect side dish for this salmon.

This is creamy corn with no cream at all. Our trick? The juice of freshly cut corn thickened with cornstarch.

(Thon Poêlé et "Mariné," Vinaigrette d'Olives Noires) A sophisticated starter from chef Guy Savoy.

"As a kid, I'd accompany my mother to her job at the racetrack, where she would lead the horses out to the starting gate," writes Michael Hunter of Studio City, California. "Eventually I was helping out in the stalls, and when I got older, I became a jockey. My mother was also the person who, in a roundabout way, inspired my other passion: cooking. I'd come home from school, and she would have prepared something from a box or can. I didn't always like what was on the dinner table, so one day I asked her to buy me a cookbook. Pretty soon I was making dinner for us almost every night. Now, after seventeen years of racing horses and cooking for family and friends, I'm making the jump to professional cooking." These beans are particularly delicious with Michael's Sugar-Seared Salmon with Cream Sauce.

Try this side with trout or lamb chops, then apple upside-down cake.

This Middle Eastern spice mixture is so delicious we suggest doubling the recipe and using the extra for a snack: Dunk some bread (such as pita) in flavorful olive oil and then in the za'atar. Or sprinkle za'atar over plain yogurt and drizzle with olive oil, and you've got a terrific dip.

"In your September 1997 issue, page 146, you answered a reader's inquiry about why pesto discolors," says Al Herron of Prescott, Arizona. "You offered a traditional solution, but I believe there is a better one: Mix fresh pesto with yogurt, and the pesto will not turn brown over time as it ordinarily does. (For many years I used the olive-oil-on-top trick with limited success.) I have kept leftover pesto mixed with yogurt in the refrigerator for several days with no discernible change in color or flavor. The proportion can vary — as little as one part yogurt to eight parts pesto, or as much as you like for flavor."

Charmaine Haravey of Niwot, Colorado, writes: "I love spending my days in the mountains. It's one of the reasons that I moved to Boulder County. But since I started my new job, I don't have as much time to hike, ski, or enjoy my other favorite activity — cooking. Spending time in the kitchen has now become a luxury. Instead of making a complete meal in the evening, I prepare 'single-girl food' — namely cookies, grilled sandwiches, and egg dishes. But I don't use that expression negatively. For me, grilled cheese sandwiches are the ultimate comfort food."

Play off the Provençal flavors by passing an arugula salad tossed with red wine vinaigrette. Sliced peaches topped with honey and sour cream would make a great finale.